Reflective Report: Career Choices and Business Environment Analysis

This report presents a reflective analysis of the author's career choices and aspirations within the context of the business environment. The author, a Master of Business Environment student at Torrens University, utilizes John Driscoll's reflective model, incorporating the 'What, So What, and Now What' framework, to assess their past experiences in the marketing sector and customer service, and to articulate their future career goals. The report includes a SWOT analysis to evaluate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, which informed the decision to pursue an MBA. Furthermore, the author discusses the importance of understanding micro, macro, and meso business environments, strategic management, and the application of SMART goals to achieve their objective of securing an administrative position in the healthcare sector. The report also highlights the author's commitment to continuous learning and the use of a journal to track progress and insights gained from course materials and feedback.

Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
The Reflective Model.............................................................................................................................3
What..................................................................................................................................................3
So What.............................................................................................................................................4
Now What..........................................................................................................................................5
Reference..............................................................................................................................................6
List of Figure
FIGURE 1: REFLECTION MODEL.............................................................................................................3
FIGURE 2: SWOT ANALYSIS....................................................................................................................4
FIGURE 3: TAXONOMY OF EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES.........................................................................5
2

Introduction
I have done my bachelor’s in business administration from Bangladesh. My major was
marketing. After finishing study, I worked for various companies in their marketing sector.
While I stayed in Sydney, I also worked for Australia Post as a customer service operator and
realised I love interacting with customers and good at organizing, administrative works. To
learn more and work on my skills I am doing Master of Business Environment from Torrens
University. In all the years of my bachelors and career I have seen how important it is to learn
about business environment (Internal and external behaviour that effects a business directly
or indirectly), how economics (Inflation, deflation, Price hike) changes a business altogether.
In recent pandemic I have learned it’s side effects as well.
In this assessment I will be using John Driscoll’s Reflective model (1994) to reflect on
myself and my career choices. Driscoll J. developed the reflection model in 1994, 2001, 2007
(Nursinganswers.net, n.d.). In this model there three stages, What, So What and Now What.
The Reflective Model
Figure 1: Reflection Model
What
While doing my bachelors I learned about business environment in Bangladesh. It prepared
me to work in the business sector as a marketing personnel. My knowledge gathered from the
institute, I used them to handle my clients and provide them a good experience. Later, when I
came to Australia, I started working in a customer service-based sector which got me
interested to keep pursuing the sector. After thinking through doing a Master’s in Business
3
What
So What
Now What

administration seemed like the perfect match for me. I did a SWOT analysis(Leigh, 2010) on
myself to reach the decision of choosing my future career path.
Figure 2: SWOT Analysis
According to my analysis I have strong communication skills and can do multitask which I
developed from my previous job as a LPO Counter Operator for Australia Post. These are
two important tasks that I would need to apply in my future career. I do have short temper
which I can control with time. I get impatient till I finish the task at hand which can be turned
as a strength with practice. There are a lot of opportunities to get a job in this sector, have
great career setup. Threats are unpredictable as I would need to make decisions for the
Executives, one wrong decision can turn the project at risk and create frustration. There are a
lot of competition for the sector. The more the opportunity, the more the competition.
So What
To achieve what I desire as a career I need an experience to understand the job market in
Australia better. MBA is what I thought would be the best way to learn the trade secrets in
theoretical manner. I chose this course as part of my degree because I want to learn more
about business environment. We have learned that Micro, macro and meso environment
effects businesses all over the globe. To understand any business better I need to learn about
the Micro aspects of a business (Hulleman & Marijs, 2021). To learn how to take the proper
decisions I need to take heed about all the facts that effect a business (Palmer et al., 2020).
Administration is related to strategic management (Mazouz & Rousseau, 2016). I took strategic
management as a course as well so I can learn and gain skills from the facilitators and course
mates simultaneously.
To ensure my proper course outcome I have decided to follow Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives (Bloom & Krathwohl, 1956).
4
Strenght
a. Communicative
b. Multitasker
Weakness
a. Short Tempered
b. Impatient
Opportunity
a. Executive Assistant
b. Office Manager
Threat
a. Competition
b. Wrong Decision
SWOT

Figure 3: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
To get the best outcomes I will be following the course instructor and resources closely.
Learn to evaluate what we learn from here and analyse with real time case studies. The
contents I will apply later the assessments and understand what I am doing and where I am
applying it for. Overall, I will have to remember the contents and application for future usage
in real life. It will help me keep track of my regular learning and achieve goals in the long
run.
To remember the contents, outcomes, and feedbacks from this course I am maintain my
journal. I take notes and any feedback that I get from my facilitator and colleagues, colour
code the important parts or the parts that I find hard to understand.
Now What
Now that I have a clear goal set for my future career and decided what to study, I can focus
on learning my courses. Just learning will not help me achieve future career. I need to
evaluate and analyse how to apply them in administrative roles in various companies. Every
company has different agenda, mission, vision. The strategies will work better if I can choose
a sector to apply my knowledge into. My desire is to apply for administrative positions in
healthcare sector. In recent years this sector has gained popularity and is one of the fast-
growing industries(Open Universities Australia, 2022).
To achieve my desired result from this course I will follow SMART goal (Ron Breazeale,
2017).
Specific: Set specific goals to attain from this goal and revisit the goals regularly.
Measurable: Measure the success of my set goals.
Attainable: Check if the set goals are attainable.
5
Create
Evaluate
Analyse
Apply
Understand
Remember

Realistic: If I set unrealistic goals at the end of the day, I will not be able to achieve them.
Time-Specific: I need to set goals that I can achieve within the course period. So, I am setting
plans to tackle the course one by one.
Overall, I need to be specific about my outcomes in this MBA course period, set boundaries
and goals to attain within all interested courses. I need to find the relativity of business
environment with my desired career path, learn its drawbacks. After taking measured steps I
will be able to focus and achieve my goals with the help of my facilitator and colleagues.
Reference
Bloom, B. S., & Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of
Educational Goals. In Handbook I: Cognitive Domain.
Hulleman, W., & Marijs, A. J. (2021). Economics and the business environment. In Economics and Business
environment. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003194989-1
Leigh, D. (2010). SWOT Analysis. In Handbook of Improving Performance in the Workplace (Vol. 2).
https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470592663.ch24
Mazouz, B., & Rousseau, A. (2016). Strategic management in public administrations: a results-based
approach to strategic public management. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 82(3).
https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852316655522
Nursinganswers.net. (n.d.). Driscoll’s Model of Reflection. Retrieved March 12, 2022, from
https://nursinganswers.net/reflective-guides/driscoll-model-of-reflection.php
Open Universities Australia. (2022). Fast Growing Industry.
Palmer, R., Cockton, J., & Cooper, G. (2020). Organizations and the business environment. In Managing
Marketing. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780080549576-10
Ron Breazeale. (2017). S.M.A.R.T. Goals | Psychology Today Australia.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/in-the-face-adversity/201705/smart-goals
6

7